KOSOVO: DACI CAMP CAMPAIGNING HARD FOR LDK

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000836

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR DRL, INL, AND EUR/SCE, FOR BRAUN, USUN FOR DREW
SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/03/2016
TAGS: PGOV KDEM KCRM UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: DACI CAMP CAMPAIGNING HARD FOR LDK
PRESIDENCY, INCLUDING THROUGH INTIMIDATION


Classified By: COM TINA KAIDANOW FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Former Kosovo Assembly Speaker Nexhat Daci
is waging an aggressive early campaign to become president of
the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK). There are indications
that Daci or his supporters may be using intimidation tactics
to wrest control of the party at the grass roots level. The
leadership of Kosovo's largest political party has a major
role to play in ongoing final status talks and -- more
importantly -- in the implementation phase of any future
agreement. Daci has a track record as an autocratic and
corrupt leader; he is also a populist who is rallying
opposition to decentralization, particularly in Gjilane. He
is stepping into a vacuum left by the continued failure of
the Unity Team and the LDK leadership to explain and defend
decentralization and other parts of the final status package.
END SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) The race to select a new party president for the
Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK),the largest ethnic
Albanian party and senior member of the ruling coalition, is
in its early stages. The LDK presidency has decided that its
convention, at which the president will be selected by 355
party representatives, must occur no later than 30 days after
November 7, the date by which branch elections are scheduled
to be completed.


3. (SBU) The LDK has 36 branches (including 12 Diaspora
branches),498 sub-branches, and from 1500-1600 smaller units
called "actives." It is in these early actives -- small
neighborhood meetings at which delegates to sub-branch
meetings are selected -- in Ferizaj, Gjilane and Viti
municipalities that Daci and his supporters have begun their
play to retake the LDK from the "old guard" of President
Fatmir Sejdiu, current Assembly head Kole Berisha, and
Prizren mayor Eqrem Kryeziu.


4. (SBU) Because Sejdiu is the President of Kosovo, he is
prohibited from actively campaigning. If he were to win the
race for LDK president, he would have to relinquish one of
the two offices. The widespread belief is that he would
retain his job as Kosovo's President, and delegate his
authority as head of the party to a subordinate. While
Sejdiu is a respected figure within established LDK circles,
Kosovo's governing coalition, and the international
community, it is not inconceivable that Daci and his
supporters will be able to muster enough grass roots
discontent to unseat him.


5. (C) Although Ferizaj, Gjilane and Viti municipalities are
not among the first to hold elections at the branch level to
elect delegates to the party convention, they are important
LDK strongholds. Daci has enlisted the help of former Deputy
PM Adem Salihaj from Ferizaj and Gjilane mayor Xhemajl Hyseni
to try and control the selection process in those two
localities. According to recent news reports, there were
irregularities at elections at a sub-branch in Gjilane
because Hyseni and the head of the sub-branch reportedly only
invited their followers to participate. Salihaj bragged to
reporters that elections in Ferizaj are proceeding well. He
noted that supporters of rival Faik Grainca, the current
mayor of Ferizaj (and Sejdiu supporter),have lost elections
at the lower levels and predicted they would not have more
than one delegate at the Ferizaj branch election. In at
least two instances of which we have heard, established LDK
officials -- Sejdiu advisor and former Viti mayor Samet
Dalipi, and Kosovo Assembly and LDK presidency member Sanije
Aliaj from Ferizaj -- reportedly failed in their initial bids
to be selected as delegates at sub-branch and active level
meetings controlled by Daci's supporters.


6. (C) Two recent car bombings in Gjilane targeting Kosovo
government officials may be linked to LDK infighting. On the
evening of September 14, an explosive device placed under the
private vehicle of Minister of Internal Affairs Fatmir
Rexhepi detonated and destroyed the vehicle, which was parked
in front of Rexhepi's residence. Shortly before midnight on

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September 16, a similar bomb destroyed an official vehicle
from the Ministry of Local Government Administration assigned
to Aferdita Syla, an advisor to Minister Lutfi Haziri.
Haziri is also the Deputy Prime Minister and a former mayor
of Gjilane. A high-ranking UNMIK official told us September
18 that he believed these "seemingly LDK-related" incidents
are endemic only to Gjilane, although shortly thereafter
another explosion occurred at a restaurant in a village in
nearby Ferizaj. Police are still investigating all three
incidents.


7. (SBU) An LDK leader in Mitrovica, Ramadan Kelmendi, told
the local daily Koha Ditore that since the start of the
party's internal elections he has received constant anonymous
telephone threats. He said that in late August he was
threatened not to put up his candidacy for the LDK's
leadership in Mitrovica. Kelmendi told the paper that he
still receives calls in which the sound of a Kalashnikov
being fired can be heard in the background. We suspect the
threats against Kelmendi may be coming from Daci supporters
since the LDK largely boycotted a recent rally with local
students in ethnic-Albanian southern Mitrovica in which Daci
participated.


8. (C) COMMENT: Daci was a polarizing figure as president of
the Kosovo Assembly, someone who became an obstacle to the
unity necessary to achieving a final status resolution for
Kosovo. According to reports by the Auditor General, an
international, Daci's tenure at the Assembly was also marked
by high levels of personal corruption. Should he defeat
Sejdiu, by means fair or foul, the process of negotiating and
implementing a status decision would be greatly complicated.
Daci is capitalizing on three things: Sejdiu himself is
barred from campaigning; the old guard of the LDK appears to
think that its authority over the party is unquestioned; and
decentralization may be the issue that gets him traction at
the grass roots level. Sejdiu's stature may in the end
prevail, but we sense a certain complacency on the part of
his supporters and we are urging Sejdiu to effectively
counter the Daci momentum by making his own voice far more
prominent in Kosovo's political life. END COMMENT.


9. (SBU) U.S. Office Pristina clears this cable in its
entirety for release to U.N. Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari.
KAIDANOW